Modern Problems
by JuliaBoon
Summary: Dolly Anderson has 3 problems; firstly she's only 17 & she's pregnant. And the baby's father? It's an alien. While still uncertain of what's really growing inside of her, a man jumps out of a blue box & hands her a card saying "Ask for Jack." Unsure, she takes the advice and finds herself in Cardiff looking for someplace called Torchwood. What has Dolly gotten herself into? R&R!
1. A Scream, No Dream

"Ahhhhh!" I screamed as I looked down at my belly. I ran my hands over it yet I still couldn't believe it. The bulge was huge and I looked like I was pregnant! Suddenly I heard my brother knocking on the door and I ran for the covers.  
"Yo sis? You okay in there?" he called out.  
I fumbled for an excuse, "Uhmm, yer…Thought I saw a cockroach!" I managed to say.  
"You're such a girl!" he yelled back.  
"Shut up!" I kept up the farce as I heard him walk away. I flipped the covers back over and gazed in horror at my belly.  
Yesterday I was NOT pregnant so perhaps I should back up a little?

_Yesterday  
_The route home from school was not an easy one, I had to pass many dark alleys on my way and so it was in one of these alleys that a man pulled me into. He was tall with brown hair and average clothing; a checked shirt over a white T. He dragged me into the alley and shoved me up against a wall. I struggled to get free but he was surprisingly strong. He looked at me with black eyes (no seriously there was no whites, just black) for a moment before he tried to kiss me. As he did I felt this like powdery stuff go down my throat, it felt really weird. After this he just pulled away and left, only glancing back once to stare at me with those jet black eyes, then he was gone.

_Today  
_So; I put the pieces together. Must have been that guy. He must have been an alien to make me like this with just a kiss and this fast. I took a breath and thought up my next move. I was not getting out of this house without my brother, mother and father all seeing me and it wasn't like I could just hide this. Plus, what if I had to raise this…uhm…whatever. Maybe it might even look human, or it might be some kind of razor sharp thing with teeth. Either way I was going to have to give birth to it, or perhaps it might just chew me to bits. Still, birthing it was (in my head) still an option, so I might as well think up something to say to my family. I settled on the Band-Aid treatment and stood, I got dressed in my loosest clothing and went downstairs.  
To cut the whole thing short here's my family's reactions.  
MOM: "Oh my lord! What about your A-Levels!" (Mom seriously thinks I have a shot at Uni, yer right!)  
DAD: "Honey! Who did this to you?" (Dad's a bit over-protective)  
BROTHER: "Sis, wow! Strange. So you got a name for it yet?" (My older brother is so cool.)  
It seemed everybody, except my brother, just totally forgot that yesterday my stomach had been flat. Mom was just concerned about my education while my father was preoccupied with plans of how he would punish my boyfriend.  
Oh that's right, I have a boyfriend; how the heck is he supposed to take this?  
My brother was cool as always; he was also the man with the plan. He called the school and told them I wouldn't be in for the next week. Then we both sat down and he asked, "So how did this happen since yesterday?" I told him my story and at the end of it he just nodded. My brother made a lot of plans that day.

So I was out. It was my brother's idea to get one of those tests; he wondered if being pregnant with an alien baby, would it show up on a test. So I was walking home, down one of those same alleys when again a man popped almost out of nowhere. There was this box which kind of looked like a phone booth but blue. The doors opened and a man stepped out. He was wearing a tan overcoat and a rumpled striped suit which was perhaps a size too large. He smiled at me and reached into his inside jacket pocket, pulling out a business card. He handed it to me and said, "I know your problem, he's got answers." I was stunned.  
I looked down at the business card and read, "Torchwood." Below the name was an address in Cardiff.  
"Just ask for Jack." The man continued. I looked again at the card then back up but the man was gone and so was the blue box.  
Jack.  
Who the hell is Jack?


	2. Torchwood

My brother said it was a good idea but I had my doubts yet could I be picky? I was an underage pregnant teen with an alien inside of her, there wasn't a lot of options for me. So that was why, the next day I found myself in Cardiff Square looking for someplace called Torchwood. I'd never really been out of London before but I suppose Cardiff isn't much different. I looked around me and saw people and buildings; yes, not much different.  
I managed to get to the Tourist Booth without much trouble but when I got there I practically froze.  
There was a man at the desk, he wore a black suit with a bright pink tie. His black hair was quaffed and pushed aside. I stared at him as he pushed aside a cup of tea and moved his eye brow up in enquiry.  
"Can I help you?" he asked.  
I stuttered, "Ask for Jack."  
The man's eyes lit up with recognition but he replied, "Who exactly are you looking for?"  
I pulled out the business card that the man had given me and showed it to him. He looked it over with a curious eyes.  
"He said to ask for Jack for help with my problem." I pointed down to my enlarged stomach.  
_Oh no! Don't tell me Jack's done this, _Thought Ianto.  
I looked around and whispered, "It's an alien."  
_Oh thank god! _Thought Ianto.  
The man nodded slowly as his hand disappeared underneath the desk, suddenly the wall behind him began to slide away.  
"In there." He said.  
I looked to my sides then walked forwards through the secret sliding door. Inside it was huge, like the basement of a sci-fi movie. At desks were people, an Asian women, a guy in a lab coat and a woman with black hair. I looked around and wondered who was Jack.  
"Jack?" I ventured. A man jumped down from the stairs leading up to an office. He wore a blue shirt, it was tucked into his pants which were attached to suspenders.  
He smiled and asked, "Who is this then?"  
"Are you Jack?" I asked.  
"Yes, and you are?"  
"Dolly Anderson." I looked around and then whispered, "I'm pregnant."  
"I can see that!" he said jollily.  
"It's an alien."  
Jack's expression changed, "Let me see that card." I handed the card to him and he turned it over; how he knew I had it I don't know, maybe the man with the pink tie had told him.  
"The most curious thing is, we don't give out business cards." Jack mused; he began to pick at the corner of the card until a piece of film peeled off. I was amazed, because underneath the word 'Torchwood' was a picture of that blue phone booth I'd seen.  
"Just as I thought. That darn guy." He mumbled to himself, "Anyway!" he smiled larger and turned to the man in the lab coat, "Owen, give Miss Anderson a check over. Apparently she's pregnant with an alien baby; and we all know how bad that can be." The women with the black hair screwed her face up.  
Owen scanned my belly with some kind of ray gun and the Asian women, which I learnt was called "Toshiko", typed on a computer.  
"Hmm, seems like its humanoid, defiantly alien though. I'm assuming oral transmission?" he asked me.  
"What?" I asked stupidly.  
Owen rolled his eyes and repeated, "Did he kiss you?" I nodded my head, a little bit embarrassed. These people were strange but at least they looked like they knew what they were doing.


	3. Infromation Flows Free

Half an hour passed before I got my final diagnosis.  
"So it appears that you'll be giving birth to a humanoid alien in five days."  
"What?" I exclaimed, "What will I do with it?"  
Jack walked back into the room and put a hand on my shoulder, "We'll have dispatch it."  
"Pardon?"  
"Oh, sorry." He rephrased, "We'll have to kill it."  
"No!" the word shot out of my mouth before I even realised it. Suddenly it struck me that I cared about the baby thing. What was wrong with me? This thing was practically a parasite and although I'm not exactly, by law, underage I sure felt like it. I was seventeen and actually entertaining the notion of raising an alien baby; on my own! I felt my head swim and lucky for me Jack has good reflexes cause I was falling before I even realised it.  
Now I'm a fainter too. Just my luck and all…  
I woke up on my back on one of the hospital style beds, and as I looked down, to my horror, my stomach was already bigger. As I sat up I let out a weak whimper.  
"I'm sorry." I heard from behind me, I turned and saw a small Asian woman. She had dark glasses that sat on the bridge of her nose and in front of her was a computer.  
"What for? It's not like it's your fault I got an alien thing inside me." I said with self-pity.  
She smiled meekly, "No, it's just…"  
"What?" I asked, my cockney accent ringing in the air.  
"It's, uhm, just that I know how hard it can be to be thrown into this world." She finally managed.  
I shrugged, "You know. The strangest thing is not the aliens or even that I've managed to live seventeen years without actually giving aliens a single thought, it's the prospect of being a mom."  
"Really?" the women looked at me with a little curiosity.  
"It's not like I never wanted kids but I thought I'd have more time to decide, plus I thought I'd at least love the father. Him being an alien and me not even knowing where the bloody hell he might be kinda drives me crazy. Plus what about my boyfriend? I can't tell 'em that an intergalactic rapist got me preggers. He'll never believe me… Oh but I really shouldn't be loading you down with all my problems!"  
"No. It's okay." She waved her hand at me dismissively, "You don't get much chance here to just talk with our lives."  
I slapped my hand to my forehead, "Oh, rude me, didn't even ask you your name."  
"Oh." She laughed, "Its Toshiko, but everyone calls me Tosh."  
I stood up, with one hand on my hip for support, "Nice to meet you Tosh." I paused, "Even under these circumstances."

We spent the next hour chatting. Tosh turned out to be a real talker once you got her started and even if she didn't say something didn't mean that you couldn't read it in her voice; so I found out a lot about the inner workings of this place called Torchwood. Firstly, Tosh was in love with that doc (who turned out was named Owen) but he was too oblivious and she was too shy to do anything about it except moon over him. I found out Jack would bang anything with a pulse but was a nice and honourable guy with a lot of secrets. The black haired women was named Gwen and she had a boyfriend named Ryse but she and Jack had a secret thing that neither would ever admit. The guy at the door was named Ianto and he was like the jack of all trades; he made the coffee, held the keys, drove the van etc. The unit was run by Jack but was tightly in association with the government; they ran themselves but were kept in check. Their mission? Find aliens, send 'em back, destroy them or locked them up; the same went for any alien technology. After all this I didn't know what to think; all this information both scared me and reassured me.  
Soon Owen came back out and gave me a bottle full of dark blue pills, "Take one in the morning and one at night."  
I nodded and then Jack came out to escort me to the door. On the way he talked, "So come back tomorrow but for now you should be fine. Hopefully we'll deliver the baby here and make the decisions after but I think you should be giving it some serious thought to what you want to do with it. Keep it, kill it. Whatever you decide they're will be repercussions for everyone. If you do decide to keep it Torchwood will be with you all the way, but there is no shame in opting out either." Jack gave me a reassuring smile then patted me on the back as I left.


	4. A Chat with Dan

Boy. Jamie. Jimmy. Joey. Josh. Jake. Jeremy. Jonah. What's with all the J's?  
I stuck my hands over my face and actually started to cry. I sat on my bed, cross-legged and cried. I don't know how long I sat there on my bed crying but it must have been awhile 'cause at some point my brother got home from work and found me. He eased open the door and sat down next to me.  
"What's wrong sis?" he asked me.  
My head shot up, "Wrong! What's wrong? Come on Dan! What's right!?" he made a noise between his tongue and teeth and replied, "Come on Dolly. Cheer up. What was that Torchwood place about?"  
I quickly gave him a summary of my morning adventures and when I was finished Dan smiled.  
"See. There. You've had some luck haven't you sis?"  
"Luck?" I asked indignantly.  
"Yer, well you met them people that are real clued in to all that alien junk so now you got options."  
"Oh yer, options." I sighed, "Danny I can't decide what to do. I know it sounds strange but I think I love this…this…this thing inside me."  
Dan shook his head in disbelief, "Just like you sis. You got a heart of gold there, you know under the sister parts."  
I laughed and hit him in the arm, "Shut up Danny."  
"So, if you an't gonna get rid of it, you gonna raise it then?" he asked, suddenly serious.  
I sighed, "Now that the thing isn't it? I just don't know."  
Dan sat there with his head faced away from me and was suddenly thoughtful then he turned back towards me and asked, "Names. How about names. If you can name it, keep it. If you can't maybe that's a sign you shouldn't."  
"Can it really be that simple?"  
Dan smiled wide, "Oh sis, the best things in life are simple."

So we spend the next twenty minutes thinking up names. Names for boys and girls and a few unisex names just in case it turned out the thing didn't have a gender. We had a lot of fun, me and Danny, thinking up names for my alien baby but I still hadn't chosen; we decided that the deadline was when 'it' was born.


	5. Repercussions

So it was time, he kinda deserved to at least know. Though Danny I knew that he'd been asking around about me but since everyone was very tight lipped he didn't know anything yet. So while my parents were out I asked him over. Danny answered the door and sent him up the stairs, Dan had insisted on staying I case things, as he said, "Got rough."  
I opened the door and the look on his face!  
"Joe, I'm pregnant."  
"Well sheesh Dolly I can see 'hat." His distinctive welsh accent ringing in the air. Joe lived here in London but had been born in Wales, him and his family moved here when he was ten yet he somehow still refused to let up the accent.  
"You're as big as a 'ouse!" he continued.  
"Oi!" I scolded back, "You arsehole!"  
"Eh, sorry Dol' it's just you are! So whose is it? Cause I'm pretty sure it an't mine!"  
I sighed, "For once Joe, you're right about that one."  
"Eh! I knew it. Who knocked ya up den?"  
"Oi! You got no right on that one!"  
"Whattcha mean Dol'?"  
"I was raped!"  
"What!" he yelled  
"By an alien. Joe honey, it's an alien baby!"  
Joe scoffed, "No it an't, no such thing as aliens."  
"What cha mean no such thing? What about that ship flying over the Thames, or that 'star' at Christmas?"  
"Just hoaxes Dol'."  
"You got to be kidden me! I know it's an alien, cause I spoke with alien experts, plus I got preggers only four days ago. You go and tell me that I got this big," I pointed at my enlarged stomach, "the normal way in four days!"  
Joe thought about it for a moment before waving his hand dismissively, "Nah, there's no way you got an alien baby in ya, you just cheated or got raped like ya first said. Either way that an't mine and it an't an alien. Sorry Dolly but I gotta bounce. This is all too weird."  
"Are you breaking up with me you useless sod?"  
"'fraid so babe."  
"Don't go babeing me you son of a bitch. Go rot if you gonna leave me after you find me pregnant."  
I said this to his back as he walked away. I'd seen this coming, I said as much to Tosh back at Torchwood, but to actually have it happen was awful. I'd always known Joe wasn't the guy you relied on during the bad times, he was a cute arse with some great hair on his head. He wasn't smart and he wasn't loyal, he was just a fling and had I have known that all this would happen I would have chosen someone else by my side but I hadn't and this left me now single and pregnant with an alien inside of me. How could things get worse?


	6. Decision Time

So my time was almost up and Torchwood though it best if I induced, then we'd be for sure in the safety of the Torchwood building. I was so nervous and I still hadn't chosen a name which meant I still hadn't decided if I was going to keep it. As soon as the baby thing was in my arms that was the deadline and I feared that time. I would finally see what it looked like, and if it was a girl or boy. Tosh held my hand, and Gwen stood nearby with a concerned face which I couldn't quite place; perhaps it was a kind of kinship? Anyway, Jack wasn't it in the room. He'd made some kind of comment which pretty much said that he was freaked out by the whole notion and I was kind of glad. Jack wasn't the kind of guy you wanted looking at you when your knees were up to your eyes while your who-ha was naked to the world. The worst part was that Owen was meant to be my doctor. The idea was pretty funny, him being all sex jokes. I was almost tempted to ask if Torchwood had other doctors (perhaps a female one?). But I pushed that away, come on! This place looks like the reject set of some sci-fi movie, they did not have other people waiting in the wings!  
Now the next part is really hard to describe, because for all the weird technology that I knew these guys must have (by just seeing what they kept out in the open), the birth of my alien baby went along much like I'd expect the birth of any human baby. This in fact makes it quite hard to describe and I know right now I seem a lot more smarter than I did before but this isn't because I am, it's just 'cause I can't think of any other way to put it all so I've thought all this out a lot. It was the most excruciating pain I'd ever felt, even with the drugs that they pumped into me. Now I don't know if this pain was normal, for all I know it was worse or less because it was an alien, but to me it was so very painful.  
Yet somehow I knew the moment he was in my arms that it was worth it. He was so perfect it almost made me grateful of that alien's mouth rape. That baby boy was so cute, oh and yes, he was a he. A perfect boy.  
And as soon as he was in my arms a name just popped into my mind like a gift from some god.  
Jay.  
The name hadn't been on that long list me and Dan had thought up in my room, but I guess the signs had been there since the start. Maybe you'll remember that every name I could think of started with a "J"? Well that is what I named him. This naming also meant that I could come up with a name meaning I was keeping him and Jack be dammed if he ever tried to "dispatch" my boy.  
On that "bed" with Jay in my arms I felt a fire rise up within me. It was like nothing I had ever felt before. Again, maybe it was because he was alien or maybe it was just something about being a new mother, but it was like a reckoning inside of me. I would never let anyone hurt my child, not Jack, not Torchwood, not even God himself. This was my perfect little boy and I would die protecting him.  
"So your decision?" Tosh asked me, with kindness in her eyes.  
"I'm keeping him." I looked up to see Jack walking down the stairs to his office.  
"Well that makes things complicated." He said, a smile on his face, but a look of concern washed over that attractive face of his.


	7. Future Unknown

"So you're keeping him, huh?" Jack asked, almost checking.  
"Yer." I said, my eyes still on my baby.  
Jack sighed, "You know I think I knew this before you did." He turned to Toshiko and made a motion with his hand. She seemed to understand what he meant as she moved away and left. Owen and Gwen left as well, together. Jack looked down at Jay and smiled, but it was a smile filled with sadness.  
"Aren't you a cutie?" he asked the child, "May I?" he asked. I was suspicious but I allowed him to take Jay from my arms. He held my boy so gently in his arms and I had a sudden vision of Jack with a child of his own. Perhaps I was wrong, maybe I was just imagining it, but I thought I saw something in his eyes that was both joyful and sad. Like he'd once had a child, but that child had been ripped from his arms like I feared mine would be.  
"If only you were human." He whispered, "Dolly Anderson. Your love of this little one will make your life difficult. Your life will never be the same. Torchwood is different than it used to be but we still have so many faults. We were once cruel and we still are so very unnice." He turned to look at me, "But perhaps that is a reason why we must now be so kind." He put Jay back into my arms and turned away from me; looking, if at anything, way off into the distance.  
"We shall let you keep your child, but there will be consequences."  
"Anything. I'll do anything for Jay."  
He turned back to me and smiled, "That's good. That will make it easier. You will face trials but always keep that in mind, your blinding love of that child and make sure that you never question your decisions."  
"What's going to happen to us?" I asked him.  
"Torchwood will relocate you. From Owen's initial tests you kid seems ordinary enough. I appears it won't grow faster or anything too obviously abnormal but always remember that he is not fully human. Keep a diligent eye on his behaviour. Torchwood will be your family doctor, do not ever involve anyone else. Once you are settled you may never contact your family again. As far as they are concerned, you are dead."  
I nodded solemnly. I knew, no matter how much I loved my family, I seemed to love this child more. Maybe it was because my family would be fine without me, but Jay; my sweet newborn was so vulnerable without me. Mom, Dad and Dan would be fine, if not a little sad. Then I remembered!  
"What about my brother? He knows about Torchwood and the alien. He knows everything."  
"I'm sure your brother can keep a secret, and if not we have something that can erase his memory."  
Well that settled it. Jack had thought of everything yet I felt something was wrong. Again I was guessing but maybe it was that I was able to let go of the people I had always loved for this child I had just met. It was something I had never, not in my seventeen years on this Earth, thought about. My mother had once said that when you have a child it changes your brain, it makes you put it above yourself; and no one can ever understand that feeling unless you have a child yourself. I guess my mom was right 'cause how else could I explain this deep feeling that I now felt inside of me? Jack told me not to worry, he said everything would be taken care of and he left me to rest.  
But I have to tell you now, this was by far not the end of my story; no, I would even go so far as to say that this was merely the beginning.


	8. So Much for a New Start!

Torchwood was true to their word, they relocated me and Jay to a small house on the outskirts of town and I knew here people would never question me. They would never think twice about Jay. The first year was bumpy because Jay in most ways was just like every other baby; he screamed too much, ate too much, cried too much and pooped too much, but Jay was an easy child in comparison to most kids and for that I was glad. We lived a pretty peaceful life, I'd even gotten a job in a shop. Of course this all was soon shot to bits.  
The knock on the door scared me, we didn't get many visitors; me and Jay just kept to ourselves we did, so that knock was strange and immediately got my attention. I'd been feeding Jay, so I put him back in his crib and put his bottle on the table. I got up and walked to the door, opening it.  
I gasped and almost fainted because the person at the door was none other than the alien who had impregnated me!  
It was Jay's father and I was filled with so many conflicting emotions that I almost screamed.  
I felt so much anger and at the same time I was frightened. He was wearing dark aviator sunglasses and he was smiling. He reached up and took of the glasses off, revealing his pitch black eyes. Those eyes were the only thing about him that made him different from any other guy I'd seen walking down the street. And damn him he was handsome. That smile filled me with anger. Anger at his ordasitey to come here and his looks that sparked attraction in me. I'd never thought about it before, I'd never thought much about his good looks thanks to being distracted by the fact he'd given me a kid.  
Whatever! I slapped him across the face but his smile just got wider.  
"How have you been sweetie?" he asked me, and so I slapped him across the face again.  
"I'd take that as not well huh honey?"  
"Don't you dare call me sweetie and honey! I am not your honey!"  
"Awe…"  
"You son of a bitch!" I cried out, "You got me pregnant you mother fucker!"  
He looked around the room, "So where is the cutie pie then?" he asked me.  
"Go fuck yourself!" He started to laugh, and it was such a creepy laugh, "You don't get to just show up here! You didn't stick around. You're a dead beat alien dad!" I screamed at him.  
His smile dropped then, "Do you know how hard it was to find you?" he said, his crisp English accent suddenly sorrowful. "It is not like I could just phone you darling."  
I twinged at the term 'darling' but moved on, "Well why the bloody hell did you give me a kid?" I asked.  
"I am sorry for that.." he said as he motioned forwards, "But my species only produces the 'seed' for a child once every hundred years, and it was my second century. To have a child was now or never. The 'seed' was coming and honestly you were the first girl I saw…" he turned away as if embarrassed. I just stared, what the hell could I say in response to that? The way he had said it made me feel almost sorry for him, but something was nagging at me also; he was 200 years old! WTF?  
He looked back to me and smiled weakly, "So to find you I had to find out your name Dolly, but I bet you never knew mine?" I shook my head, "Well then, I'm called Braxisnaflarginsten Jarlarrowyar…but you can call me Braxis."  
"Hi Braxis." I said, it was strange but although I knew I hated this man, I couldn't seem to find any venom.  
"So can I see him?" the Braxis asked me, I nodded, "What's his name?"  
"Jay." I said simply as I lead him to the crib. Jay had fallen asleep despite all the yelling and he was so cute, wrapped up in a blue blanket. I saw kindness in Braxis's eyes as he looked down upon his son, and for a moment it was as if everything was right in the world.  
Of course the moment did not last…


	9. A Sudden Interruption

The door to my house burst open as the man's shoulder slammed into the door, his long grey jacket flapping behind him. He entered with his Wembley revolver raised and from behind him came a woman also brandishing a gun, but a more standard Glock 9mm. I screamed at the sudden interruption and Braxis sprung to attention.  
When I realised who had arrived I asked, "Jack?! What's going on?" but Jack didn't answerer he and the rest of his team just began to bundle everyone up and stick them in the back of a white van including me and Jay.  
The Torchwood Hub really hadn't changed much, except perhaps for a few more additions to the alien technology that was scattered on tables and shelves. I clutched at Jay for dear life as Jack loomed over me. I hadn't laid eyes on Braxis since we were grabbed.  
"Dolly, what were you doing with a class 8 extra-terrestrial in your home?" Jack asked me.  
I shook my head, "What the blood hell should that mean to me? Class 8? Please!" I took a deep breath, "That bloody alien in there is the asshole who got me pregnant!" Jack's eyes lit up. Torchwood had never figured out what kind of alien had got me up the duff and now I think Jack had figured it out. I based this on the fact that he ran out of the room and left me alone. Soon however, Tosh walked out, saw me, and said hello.  
"How'd you find Braxis anyway?" I asked her.  
Tosh smiled, "We detected an anomaly near your home and since we knew you were there we came immediately." I nodded. I chatted with Tosh for another good twenty minutes before Jack emerged and took me to see Braxis. He was in a dim lit cell with dirt strewn across the plastic window. I could hear a kind of thrashing coming from cells further down but I ignored it.  
"He's from a planet called Jarlowarr they reproduce…" I cut Jack off there.  
"Yer, I know all that. He told me as much. How about Jay. How will Jay turn out?" I asked.  
Jack shook his head smiling and replied, "Jarlowarrs are not much different physically other than their reproduction cycles, long life and psychic abilities."  
What? "Whacha mean by 'psychic abilities'?" I asked, shocked.  
Jack screwed up his face, "Well…" he started, "Well they can see things and often move objects with their minds. However this is seen more as a gift than a standard and not all Jarlowarrs have this. Also, Jay being half human might prevent him from getting this. However he will live a lot longer and will also reproduce the same way."  
Jack gave me a minute to absorb this new information. I'd been living so long in a grey zone that it was actually a bit of a shock to get the truth and I was stunned. I didn't quite understand how this new information was going to impact mine and Jay's life but I was sure glad to have it.  
"So what areya going to do with Braxis?" I asked Jack.  
Jack blinked, "Send him back of course, he didn't arrive though the rift like we'd thought. He actually came in a ship that uses rift energy as fuel, that's why it spiked our metres. Technically he hasn't done anything we can punish him for, other than crash landing here."  
"Hmm, okay." Somehow that didn't seem like a Torchwood thing but I guess it made sense and it wasn't like I wanted Braxis to pay child support or anything like that. I was fine on me own.  
"So does this mean I can go home now?" I asked Jack.  
"Yer, we'll take you back soon. Just wait out in the hub." I nodded, but as I turned to leave Braxis stood up and rushed the glass.  
"I want to be with my child." He said, his black eyes gazing down at Jay's small form in my arms.  
Jack shook his head, "You are a class 8 being on a class 2 planet. You cannot be here. You must return."  
Braxis was almost in tears, "But how can I ever see him grow up?"  
I looked between both these men and asked, "Won't Jay live much longer than me? I mean you said your 200 years old and you've got 100 years left?" Both men nodded.  
"Then how about you take him when I'm gone. He can spend a hundred years here on Earth and the rest of his time on Jarwarr."  
"Jarlowarr." Both men said at the same time, correcting me.  
"Whatever." I sighed. I didn't know how I had thought of that so fast and without much thought but it seemed to mature. I mean I knew I wasn't going to live for three hundred years so what was the point of Jay staying here when I was gone? It was the best thing, not only for Braxis but for Jay too. He'd need a father.  
I looked at Braxis and he was wiping a black tear from his eye as he nodded.  
Jack sighed but said, "When then I guess it is settled. You may return in 100 years when Dolly has passed. But only for a day to retrieve your son Jay. Till then you must leave this planet."  
And that was how it was agreed and soon Braxis returned to his home planet; not to return for 100 years.


End file.
